Part of Packt's Beginner's Guide series, each chapter looks at a different aspect of using Moodle in a business environment, and steadily guides the reader through setting Moodle up in their own business with the help of practical examples, accompanied by lots of screenshots. Each chapter also includes case studies from well-known companies that have already implemented Moodle. If you are responsible for training, recruitment, or maintaining any guidelines within your company, then this book is for you. No previous experience with Moodle is necessary as the examples are easy to follow

Attain expert-level proficiency with Git for enhanced productivity and efficient collaboration by mastering advanced distributed version control features About This Book Set up Git for solo and collaborative development Harness the full power of Git version control system to customize Git behavior, manipulate history, integrate external tools and explore platform shortcuts A detailed guide, which explains how to apply advanced Git techniques and workflows and ways to handle submodules Who This Book Is For If you are a Git user with reasonable knowledge of Git and familiarity with basic concepts such as branching, merging, staging, and workflows, this is the book for you. Basic knowledge of installing Git and software configuration management concepts is essential. What You Will Learn Explore project history, find revisions using different criteria, and filter and format how history looks Manage your working directory and staging area for commits and interactively create new revisions and amend them Set up repositories and branches for collaboration Submit your own contributions and integrate contributions from other developers via merging or rebasing Customize Git behavior system-wide, on a per-user, per-repository, and per-file basis Take up the administration and set up of Git repositories, configure access, find and recover from repository errors, and perform repository maintenance Chose a workflow and configure and set up support for the chosen workflow In Detail Git is one of the most popular types of Source Code Management (SCM) and Distributed Version Control System (DVCS). Despite the powerful and versatile nature of the tool enveloping strong support for nonlinear development and the ability to handle large projects efficiently, it is a complex tool and often regarded as “user-unfriendly”. Getting to know the ideas and concepts behind the architecture of Git will help you make full use of its power and understand its behavior. Learning the best practices and recommended workflows should help you to avoid problems and ensure trouble-free development. The book scope is meticulously designed to help you gain deeper insights into Git's architecture, its underlying concepts, behavior, and best practices. Mastering Git starts with a quick implementation example of using Git for a collaborative development of a sample project to establish the foundation knowledge of Git operational tasks and concepts. Furthermore, as you progress through the book, the tutorials provide detailed de*ions of various areas of usage: from archaeology, through managing your own work, to working with other developers. This book also helps augment your understanding to examine and explore project history, create and manage your contributions, set up repositories and branches for collaboration in centralized and distributed version control, integrate work from other developers, customize and extend Git, and recover from repository errors. By exploring advanced Git practices, you will attain a deeper understanding of Git’s behavior, allowing you to customize and extend existing recipes and write your own. Style and approach Step-by-step instructions and useful information make this book the ultimate guide to understanding and mastering Git. This book will show road to mastery example by example, while explaining mental model of Git. The Introduction section covers the 'Essentials' just for refreshing the basics. The main highlight is that the concepts are based on HOW the technology/framework works and not just practical 'WHAT to do'.

Over 70 recipes to get you writing powerful and efficient multithreaded, asynchronous, and parallel programs in C# 6.0 About This Book Rewritten and updated to take advantage of the latest C# 6 features Learn about multithreaded, asynchronous, and parallel programming through hands-on, code-first examples Use these recipes to build fast, scalable, and reliable applications in C# Who This Book Is For This book is aimed at those who are new to multithreaded programming, and who are looking for a quick and easy way to get started. It is assumed that you have some experience in C# and .NET already, and you should also be familiar with basic computer science terminology and basic algorithms and data structures. What You Will Learn Use C# 6.0 asynchronous language features Work with raw threads, synchronize threads, and coordinate their work Develop your own asynchronous API with Task Parallel Library Work effectively with a thread pool Scale up your server application with I/O threads Parallelize your LINQ queries with PLINQ Use common concurrent collections Apply different parallel programming patterns Use Reactive Extensions to run asynchronous operations and manage their options In Detail Multi-core processors are synonymous with computing speed and power in today’s world, which is why multithreading has become a key concern for C# developers. Multithreaded code helps you create effective, scalable, and responsive applications. This is an easy-to-follow guide that will show you difficult programming problems in context. You will learn how to solve them with practical, hands-on, recipes. With these recipes, you’ll be able to start creating your own scalable and reliable multithreaded applications. Starting from learning what a thread is, we guide you through the basics and then move on to more advanced concepts such as task parallel libraries, C# asynchronous functions, and much more. Rewritten to the latest C# specification, C# 6, and updated with new and modern recipes to help you make the most of the hardware you have available, this book will help you push the boundaries of what you thought possible in C#. Style and approach This is an easy-to-follow guide full of hands-on examples of real-world multithreading tasks. Each topic is explained and placed in context, and for the more inquisitive, there are also more in-depth details of the concepts used.

Over 60 practical recipes on data exploration and analysis About This Book Clean dirty data, extract accurate information, and explore the relationships between variables Forecast the output of an electric plant and the water flow of American rivers using pandas, NumPy, Statsmodels, and scikit-learn Find and extract the most important features from your dataset using the most efficient Python libraries Who This Book Is For If you are a beginner or intermediate-level professional who is looking to solve your day-to-day, analytical problems with Python, this book is for you. Even with no prior programming and data analytics experience, you will be able to finish each recipe and learn while doing so. What You Will Learn Read, clean, transform, and store your data usng Pandas and OpenRefine Understand your data and explore the relationships between variables using Pandas and D3.js Explore a variety of techniques to classify and cluster outbound marketing campaign calls data of a bank using Pandas, mlpy, NumPy, and Statsmodels Reduce the dimensionality of your dataset and extract the most important features with pandas, NumPy, and mlpy Predict the output of a power plant with regression models and forecast water flow of American rivers with time series methods using pandas, NumPy, Statsmodels, and scikit-learn Explore social interactions and identify fraudulent activities with graph theory concepts using NetworkX and Gephi Scrape Internet web pages using urlib and BeautifulSoup and get to know natural language processing techniques to classify movies ratings using NLTK Study simulation techniques in an example of a gas station with agent-based modeling In Detail Data analysis is the process of systematically applying statistical and logical techniques to describe and illustrate, condense and recap, and evaluate data. Its importance has been most visible in the sector of information and communication technologies. It is an employee asset in almost all economy sectors. This book provides a rich set of independent recipes that dive into the world of data analytics and modeling using a variety of approaches, tools, and algorithms. You will learn the basics of data handling and modeling, and will build your skills gradually toward more advanced topics such as simulations, raw text processing, social interactions analysis, and more. First, you will learn some easy-to-follow practical techniques on how to read, write, clean, reformat, explore, and understand your data—arguably the most time-consuming (and the most important) tasks for any data scientist. In the second section, different independent recipes delve into intermediate topics such as classification, clustering, predicting, and more. With the help of these easy-to-follow recipes, you will also learn techniques that can easily be expanded to solve other real-life problems such as building recommendation engines or predictive models. In the third section, you will explore more advanced topics: from the field of graph theory through natural language processing, discrete choice modeling to simulations. You will also get to expand your knowledge on identifying fraud origin with the help of a graph, scrape Internet websites, and classify movies based on their reviews. By the end of this book, you will be able to efficiently use the vast array of tools that the Python environment has to offer. Style and approach This hands-on recipe guide is divided into three sections that tackle and overcome real-world data modeling problems faced by data analysts/scientist in their everyday work. Each independent recipe is written in an easy-to-follow and step-by-step fashion.

Get to know techniques and approaches to procedurally generate game content in C++ using Simple and Fast Multimedia LibraryAbout This BookThis book contains a bespoke Simple and Fast Multimedia Library (SFML) game engine with complete online documentationThrough this book, you’ll create games that are non-predictable and dynamic and have a high replayability factorGet a breakdown of the key techniques and approaches applied to a real game.Who This Book Is ForIf you are a game developer who is familiar with C++ and is looking to create bigger and more dynamic games, then this book is for you. The book assumes some prior experience with C++, but any intermediate concepts are clarified in detail. No prior experience with SFML is required.What You Will LearnDiscover the systems and ideology that lie at the heart of procedural systemsUse Random number generation (RNG) with C++ data types to create random but controlled resultsBuild levels procedurally with randomly located items and eventsCreate dynamic game objects at runtimeConstruct games using a component-based approachAssemble non-predictable game events and scenariosOperate procedural generation to create dynamic content fast and easilyGenerate game environments for endless replayabilityIn DetailProcedural generation is a growing trend in game development. It allows developers to create games that are bigger and more dynamic, giving the games a higher level of replayability. Procedural generation isn’t just one technique, it’s a collection of techniques and approaches that are used together to create dynamic systems and objects. C++ is the industry-standard programming language to write computer games. It’s at the heart of most engines, and is incredibly powerful. SFML is an easy-to-use, cross-platform, and open-source multimedia library. Access to computer hardware is broken into succinct modules, making it a great choice if you want to develop cross-platform games with ease.Using C++ and SFML technologies, this book will guide you through the techniques and approaches used to generate content procedurally within game development.Throughout the course of this book, we’ll look at examples of these technologies, starting with setting up a roguelike project using the C++ template. We’ll then move on to using RNG with C++ data types and randomly scattering objects within a game map. We will create simple console examples to implement in a real game by creating unique and randomised game items, dynamic sprites, and effects, and procedurally generating game events. Then we will walk you through generating random game maps. At the end, we will have a retrospective look at the project.By the end of the book, not only will you have a solid understanding of procedural generation, but you’ll also have a working roguelike game that you will have extended using the examples provided.Style and approachThis is an easy-to-follow guide where each topic is explained clearly and thoroughly through the use of a bespoke example, then implemented in a real game project.

Create powerful applications with the most robust open source web mapping library using this advanced guideAbout This BookDevelop responsive and platform-independent web mapping applications with OpenLayers 3Learn the key points of creating great applications with native JavaScript through the step-by-step examplesMaster the use of the library, from compiling custom builds to developing a complete WebGIS applicationWho This Book Is ForThis book is intended for front-end developers with basic understanding of JavaScript and GIS concepts, and preferably for those who are familiar with the fundamentals of OpenLayers 3. You might have never used OpenLayers 3 as a seasoned JavaScript developer. If this is the case and you are eager to learn web mapping, this book will definitely set you on the right track.What You Will LearnUse the advanced functionality of the OpenLayers 3 library effectivelyImplement the library in your application, shaping it to your needsManage layers and the layer stack dynamicallyCreate not only stunning but also accurate thematic mapsExtend OpenLayers 3 with your own custom classesDevelop mobile-friendly web mapping applicationsMake stunning effects with canvas manipulation, or visualize point clouds with WebGLIntegrate third-party applications, and create custom builds that completely satisfy your needsIn DetailOpenLayers 3 allows you to create stunning web mapping and WebGIS applications. It uses modern, cutting edge browser technologies. It is written with Closure Library, enabling you to build browser-independent applications without painful debugging ceremonies, which even have some limited fallback options for older browsers.With this guide, you will be introduced to the world of advanced web mapping and WebGIS.First, you will be introduced to the advanced features and functionalities available in OpenLayers 3. Next, you will be taken through the key points of creating custom applications with OpenLayers 3. You will then learn how to create the web mapping application of yours (or your company's) dream with this open source, expense-free, yet very powerful library. We’ll also show you how to make amazing looking thematic maps and create great effects with canvas manipulation.By the end of this book, you will have a strong command of web mapping and will be well on your way to creating amazing applications using OpenLayers 3.Style and approachThis is an advanced guide packed with comprehensive examples, and it concentrates on the advanced parts of OpenLayers 3 and JavaScript. It intentionally skips the basic and well-known methodologies, but discusses the hard-to-understand ones in great detail.

Harness the power of procedural content generation to design unique games with UnityAbout This BookLearn the basics of PCG developmentDevelop a 2D game from start to finishExplore all the different ways PCG can be applied in gamesWho This Book Is ForThis book is for Unity game developers, especially those who work on indie games. You should be familiar with Unity and C# *ing but you'll be able to jump in and start learning PCG straightaway.What You Will LearnUnderstand the theory of Procedural Content GenerationLearn the uses of Pseudo Random NumbersCreate reusable algorithm designs for PCGEvaluate the data structures for PCGDevelop smaller games with larger amounts of contentGenerate content instead of spending time designing every minute detailLearn when and how to add PCG to your gameLearn the fundamental techniques of PCGIn DetailProcedural Content Generation is a process by which game content is developed using computer algorithms, rather than through the manual efforts of game developers. This book teaches readers how to develop algorithms for procedural generation that they can use in their own games. These concepts are put into practice using C# and Unity is used as the game development engine.This book provides the fundamentals of learning and continued learning using PCG. You'll discover the theory of PCG and the mighty Pseudo Random Number Generator. Random numbers such as die rolls and card drafting provide the chance factor that makes games fun and supplies spontaneity. This book also takes you through the full development of a 2D game.Starting with level generation, you'll learn how PCG can make the game environment for you. You'll move into item generation and learn the different techniques to procedurally create game items. Thereafter, you'll be guided through the more abstract PCG areas such as scaling difficulty to the player and even generating music! The book helps you set up systems within your games where algorithms create computationally generated levels, art assets, quests, stories, characters, and weapons; these can substantially reduce the burden of manually creating every aspect of the game.Finally, you'll get to try out your new PCG skills on 3D terrain generation.Style and approachAn easy-to-follow, project-based guide that will let you build a complete game by the end of the book using PCG.

Build your first interactive map and build location-aware applications using cutting-edge examples in PythonAbout This BookLearn the full geo-processing workflow using Python with open source packagesCreate press-quality styled maps and data visualization with high-level and reusable codeProcess massive datasets efficiently using parallel processingWho This Book Is ForGeospatial Development By Example with Python is intended for beginners or advanced developers in Python who want to work with geographic data. The book is suitable for professional developers who are new to geospatial development, for hobbyists, or for data scientists who want to move into some simple development.What You Will LearnPrepare a development environment with all the tools needed for geo-processing with PythonImport point data and structure an application using Python’s resourcesCombine point data from multiple sources, creating intuitive and functional representations of geographic objectsFilter data by coordinates or attributes easily using pure PythonMake press-quality and replicable maps from any dataDownload, transform, and use remote sensing data in your mapsMake calculations to extract information from raster data and show the results on beautiful mapsHandle massive amounts of data with advanced processing techniquesProcess huge satellite images in an efficient wayOptimize geo-processing times with parallel processingIn DetailFrom Python programming good practices to the advanced use of analysis packages, this book teaches you how to write applications that will perform complex geoprocessing tasks that can be replicated and reused.Much more than simple *s, you will write functions to import data, create Python classes that represent your features, and learn how to combine and filter them.With pluggable mechanisms, you will learn how to visualize data and the results of analysis in beautiful maps that can be batch-generated and embedded into documents or web pages.Finally, you will learn how to consume and process an enormous amount of data very efficiently by using advanced tools and modern computers’ parallel processing capabilities.Style and approachThis easy-to-follow book is filled with hands-on examples that illustrate the construction of three sample applications of how to write reusable and interconnected Python code for geo-processing.

Identify and safeguard your network against both internal and external threats, hackers, and malware attacksAbout This BookLay your hands on physical and virtual evidence to understand the sort of crime committed by capturing and analyzing network trafficConnect the dots by understanding web proxies, firewalls, and routers to close in on your suspectA hands-on guide to help you solve your case with malware forensic methods and network behaviorsWho This Book Is ForIf you are a network administrator, system administrator, information security, or forensics professional and wish to learn network forensic to track the intrusions through network-based evidence, then this book is for you. Basic knowledge of Linux and networking concepts is expected.What You Will LearnUnderstand Internetworking, sources of network-based evidence and other basic technical fundamentals, including the tools that will be used throughout the bookAcquire evidence using traffic acquisition software and know how to manage and handle the evidencePerform packet analysis by capturing and collecting data, along with content analysisLocate wireless devices, as well as capturing and analyzing wireless traffic data packetsImplement protocol analysis and content matching; acquire evidence from NIDS/NIPSAct upon the data and evidence gathered by being able to connect the dots and draw links between various eventsApply logging and interfaces, along with analyzing web proxies and understanding encrypted web trafficUse IOCs (Indicators of Compromise) and build real-world forensic solutions, dealing with malwareIn DetailWe live in a highly networked world. Every digital device—phone, tablet, or computer is connected to each other, in one way or another. In this new age of connected networks, there is network crime. Network forensics is the brave new frontier of digital investigation and information security professionals to extend their abilities to catch miscreants on the network.The book starts with an introduction to the world of network forensics and investigations. You will begin by getting an understanding of how to gather both physical and virtual evidence, intercepting and analyzing network data, wireless data packets, investigating intrusions, and so on. You will further explore the technology, tools, and investigating methods using malware forensics, network tunneling, and behaviors. By the end of the book, you will gain a complete understanding of how to successfully close a case.Style and approachAn easy-to-follow book filled with real-world case studies and applications. Each topic is explained along with all the practical tools and software needed, allowing the reader to use a completely hands-on approach.

Take your PhoneGap experience to the next level and create engaging real-world applicationsAbout This BookCreate a useful PhoneGap workflow for larger projects in order to simplify and manage the development processUse third-party plugins, IndexedDB, and SQLite for PhoneGap to develop large-scale, data-driven, and highly accessible applicationsA pragmatic guide to construct top-notch large-scale applications using PhoneGapWho This Book Is ForIf you have created simple applications using PhoneGap in the past and now want to take your workflow and apps to the next level, this book will help you reach your goals. You should have a good working knowledge of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, and prior experience with PhoneGap.What You Will LearnConstruct build workflows that simplify complex application developmentIntegrate the next version of JavaScript to simplify your codeCreate accessible hybrid applicationsPersist and query data using third-party database pluginsCreate your own PhoneGap plugins for your unique use casesCreate icons and splash screens suitable for submission to app storesPublish your app to the Google Play and Apple iTunes storesIn DetailPhoneGap is a useful and flexible tool that enables you to create complex hybrid applications for mobile platforms. In addition to the core technology, there is a large and vibrant community that creates third-party plugins that can take your app to the next level.This book will guide you through the process of creating a complex data-driven hybrid mobile application using PhoneGap, web technologies, and third-party plugins.A good foundation is critical, so you will learn how to create a useful workflow to make development easier. From there, the next version of JavaScript (ES6) and the CSS pre-processor SASS are introduced as a way to simplify creating the look of the mobile application. Responsive design techniques are also covered, including the flexbox layout module. As many apps are data-driven, you'll build an application throughout the course of the book that relies upon IndexedDB and SQLite. You'll also download additional content and address how to handle in-app purchases. Furthermore, you’ll build your own customized plugins for your particular use case. When the app is complete, the book will guide you through the steps necessary to submit your app to the Google Play and Apple iTunes stores.Style and approachThis book is a step-by-step guide, in which the concepts covered are explained with the help of hands-on examples

Arm yourself with over 65 hands-on recipes to master the skills of building scalable web applications with Ember.jsAbout This BookThis book is your one-stop solution to the key features of Ember.js. Become skilled in the art of building web-apps in a fraction of the code you'd write in other frameworks.Build JavaScript apps that don't break the web! Our 100 recipes will make this a cakewalk for you!This books makes learning Ember.js easy by breaking down each topic into simple-to-understand recipesWho This Book Is ForAnyone who wants to explore Ember.js and wishes to get hands on making sophisticated web apps with less coding will find this book handy. Prior experience in Coding and familiarity with JavaScript is recommended. If you’ve heard of Ember.js or are just curious on how a single-page application framework works, then this book is for you.What You Will LearnSkip the boilerplate code with Ember CLI generatorsCreate a component with actions and eventsSet up a model with Ember Data using fixture dataCreate several different types of test cases and run themManage and set up user authentication using Ember Simple AuthAdd animated transitions to your app with Liquid FireSet up a service and initializer with dependency injectionCreate a working chat applicationSet up an Ember Service and initializer with dependency injectionCreate a working chat applicationIn DetailEmber.js is an open source JavaScript framework that will make you more productive. It uses common idioms and practices, making it simple to create amazing single-page applications. It also lets you create code in a modular way using the latest JavaScript features. Not only that, it has a great set of APIs to get any task done. The Ember.js community is welcoming newcomers and is ready to help you when needed.This book provides in-depth explanations on how to use the Ember.js framework to take you from beginner to expert. You’ll start with some basic topics and by the end of the book, you’ll know everything you need to know to build a fully operational Ember application.We’ll begin by explaining key points on how to use the Ember.js framework and the associated tools. You’ll learn how to effectively use Ember CLI and how to create and deploy your application. We’ll take a close look at the Ember object model and templates by examining bindings and observers. We’ll then move onto Ember components, models, and Ember Data. We’ll show you examples on how to connect to RESTful databases. Next we’ll get to grips with testing with integration and acceptance tests using QUnit. We will conclude by covering authentication, services, and Ember add-ons. We’ll explore advanced topics such as services and initializers, and how to use them together to build real-time applications.Style and approachEach recipe in this book will make it that much easier to understand Ember.js. Recipe after recipe, you will learn the concepts of Ember.js by following the simple step-by-step processes

Examine the techniques and Java tools supporting the growing field of data science About This Book Your entry ticket to the world of data science with the stability and power of Java Explore, analyse, and visualize your data effectively using easy-to-follow examples Make your Java applications more capable using machine learning Who This Book Is For This book is for Java developers who are comfortable developing applications in Java. Those who now want to enter the world of data science or wish to build intelligent applications will find this book ideal. Aspiring data scientists will also find this book very helpful. What You Will Learn Understand the nature and key concepts used in the field of data science Grasp how data is collected, cleaned, and processed Become comfortable with key data analysis techniques See specialized analysis techniques centered on machine learning Master the effective visualization of your data Work with the Java APIs and techniques used to perform data analysis In Detail Data science is concerned with extracting knowledge and insights from a wide variety of data sources to analyse patterns or predict future behaviour. It draws from a wide array of disciplines including statistics, computer science, mathematics, machine learning, and data mining. In this book, we cover the important data science concepts and how they are supported by Java, as well as the often statistically challenging techniques, to provide you with an understanding of their purpose and application. The book starts with an introduction of data science, followed by the basic data science tasks of data collection, data cleaning, data analysis, and data visualization. This is followed by a discussion of statistical techniques and more advanced topics including machine learning, neural networks, and deep learning. The next section examines the major categories of data analysis including text, visual, and audio data, followed by a discussion of resources that support parallel implementation. The final chapter illustrates an in-depth data science problem and provides a comprehensive, Java-based solution. Due to the nature of the topic, simple examples of techniques are presented early followed by a more detailed treatment later in the book. This permits a more natural introduction to the techniques and concepts presented in the book. Style and approach This book follows a tutorial approach, providing examples of each of the major concepts covered. With a step-by-step instructional style, this book covers various facets of data science and will get you up and running quickly.

Master the art of providing effective IT services to your customers by leveraging Zendesk About This Book Deep dive into the functionalities of Zendesk and improve your organization's customer services Learn how to expand the capabilities of Zendesk by integrating and extending it with third-party tools A master level guide that manages tickets, channels, and workflows along with advanced security features Who This Book Is For This book is for proficient Zendesk administrators who want to unlock the full potential of their Zendesk environment by gaining a deeper understanding of Zendesk's advanced customization options. What You Will Learn Customize ticket channels such as Email, Twitter, Facebook, and Web-Widget Add business rules to create a more effective and automated Zendesk environment Use Zendesk apps to add more functionality to the Zendesk setup Extend Zendesk with JIRA and Salesforce Create custom metrics within GoodData in order to set up customized and automated reports Learn how to secure and troubleshoot Zendesk In Detail Zendesk is a cloud-based customer service solution that is widely used because it is easy, efficienct, flexible, and low cost. It is highly scalable and is great for organizations of all sizes. If you're a Zendesk administrator and are looking to explore advanced-level concepts, then this book is for you. It covers the core functionalities such as managing users, groups, and the organization, and creating and adding custom fields. You will learn how to add customized ticket channels to your account. Then, you will focus on customizing business rules and extending Zendesk with JIRA and Salesforce. Towards the end, the book emphasizes security and troubleshooting aspects as well as providing tips and tricks to create a more efficient support environment. By the end of this book, you will be able to turn a basic Zendesk setup into a highly customized working environment. Style and approach This advanced guide provides easy to understand examples to ensure you gain expertise with Zendesk.

Build real-world Artificial Intelligence applications with Python to intelligently interact with the world around you About This Book Step into the amazing world of intelligent apps using this comprehensive guide Enter the world of Artificial Intelligence, explore it, and create your own applications Work through simple yet insightful examples that will get you up and running with Artificial Intelligence in no time Who This Book Is For This book is for Python developers who want to build real-world Artificial Intelligence applications. This book is friendly to Python beginners, but being familiar with Python would be useful to play around with the code. It will also be useful for experienced Python programmers who are looking to use Artificial Intelligence techniques in their existing technology stacks. What You Will Learn Realize different classification and regression techniques Understand the concept of clustering and how to use it to automatically segment data See how to build an intelligent recommender system Understand logic programming and how to use it Build automatic speech recognition systems Understand the basics of heuristic search and genetic programming Develop games using Artificial Intelligence Learn how reinforcement learning works Discover how to build intelligent applications centered on images, text, and time series data See how to use deep learning algorithms and build applications based on it In Detail Artificial Intelligence is becoming increasingly relevant in the modern world where everything is driven by technology and data. It is used extensively across many fields such as search engines, image recognition, robotics, finance, and so on. We will explore various real-world scenarios in this book and you’ll learn about various algorithms that can be used to build Artificial Intelligence applications. During the course of this book, you will find out how to make informed decisions about what algorithms to use in a given context. Starting from the basics of Artificial Intelligence, you will learn how to develop various building blocks using different data mining techniques. You will see how to implement different algorithms to get the best possible results, and will understand how to apply them to real-world scenarios. If you want to add an intelligence layer to any application that’s based on images, text, stock market, or some other form of data, this exciting book on Artificial Intelligence will definitely be your guide! Style and approach This highly practical book will show you how to implement Artificial Intelligence. The book provides multiple examples enabling you to create smart applications to meet the needs of your organization. In every chapter, we explain an algorithm, implement it, and then build a smart application.

Master over 60 recipes to help you deliver complete, scalable, microservice-based solutions and see the improved business results immediately About This Book Adopt microservices-based architecture and deploy it at scale Build your complete microservice architecture using different recipes for different solutions Identify specific tools for specific scenarios and deliver immediate business results, correlate use cases, and adopt them in your team and organization Who This Book Is For This book is for developers, ops, and DevOps professionals who would like to put microservices to work and improve products, services, and operations. Those looking to build and deploy microservices will find this book useful, as well as managers and people at CXO level looking to adopt microservices in their organization. Prior knowledge of Java is expected. No prior knowledge of microservices is assumed. What You Will Learn Build microservices using Spring Boot, Wildfly Swarm, Dropwizard, and SparkJava Containerize your microservice using Docker Deploy microservices using Mesos/Marathon and Kubernetes Implement service discovery and load balancing using Zookeeper, Consul, and Nginx Monitor microservices using Graphite and Grafana Write stream programs with Kafka Streams and Spark Aggregate and manage logs using Kafka Get introduced to DC/OS, Docker Swarm, and YARN In Detail This book will help any team or organization understand, deploy, and manage microservices at scale. It is driven by a sample application, helping you gradually build a complete microservice-based ecosystem. Rather than just focusing on writing a microservice, this book addresses various other microservice-related solutions: deployments, clustering, load balancing, logging, streaming, and monitoring. The initial chapters offer insights into how web and enterprise apps can be migrated to scalable microservices. Moving on, you’ll see how to Dockerize your application so that it is ready to be shipped and deployed. We will look at how to deploy microservices on Mesos and Marathon and will also deploy microservices on Kubernetes. Next, you will implement service discovery and load balancing for your microservices. We’ll also show you how to build asynchronous streaming systems using Kafka Streams and Apache Spark. Finally, we wind up by aggregating your logs in Kafka, creating your own metrics, and monitoring the metrics for the microservice. Style and approach This book follows a recipe-driven approach and shows you how to plug and play with all the various pieces, putting them together to build a complete scalable microservice ecosystem. You do not need to study the chapters in order, as you can directly refer to the content you need for your situation.

Exciting projects that will teach you how complex data can be exploited to gain maximum insights About This Book Architect a good HBase cluster for a very large distributed system Get to grips with the concepts of performance tuning with HBase A practical guide full of engaging recipes and attractive screenshots to enhance your system’s performance Who This Book Is For This book is intended for developers and architects who want to know all about HBase at a hands-on level. This book is also for big data enthusiasts and database developers who have worked with other NoSQL databases and now want to explore HBase as another futuristic scalable database solution in the big data space. What You Will Learn Configure HBase from a high performance perspective Grab data from various RDBMS/Flat files into the HBASE systems Understand table design and perform CRUD operations Find out how the communication between the client and server happens in HBase Grasp when to use and avoid MapReduce and how to perform various tasks with it Get to know the concepts of scaling with HBase through practical examples Set up Hbase in the Cloud for a small scale environment Integrate HBase with other tools including ElasticSearch In Detail Apache HBase is a non-relational NoSQL database management system that runs on top of HDFS. It is an open source, disturbed, versioned, column-oriented store and is written in Java to provide random real-time access to big Data. We’ll start off by ensuring you have a solid understanding the basics of HBase, followed by giving you a thorough explanation of architecting a HBase cluster as per our project specifications. Next, we will explore the scalable structure of tables and we will be able to communicate with the HBase client. After this, we’ll show you the intricacies of MapReduce and the art of performance tuning with HBase. Following this, we’ll explain the concepts pertaining to scaling with HBase. Finally, you will get an understanding of how to integrate HBase with other tools such as ElasticSearch. By the end of this book, you will have learned enough to exploit HBase for boost system performance. Style and approach This book is intended for software quality assurance/testing professionals, software project managers, or software developers with prior experience in using Selenium and Java to test web-based applications. This books also provides examples for C#, Python, and Ruby users.

Master the intricacies of Tableau to create effective data visualizations About This Book Arm yourself with an arsenal of advanced chart types and geocoding to efficiently and engagingly present information Map a grid over a network node diagram and use that grid to demonstrate loads, processing time, and more in Tableau Integrate R with Tableau by utilizing R functions, libraries, and saved models Who This Book Is For If you are a business analyst without developer-level programming skills, then this book is for you. You are expected to have at least a fundamental understanding of Tableau and basic knowledge of joins, however SQL knowledge is not assumed. You should have basic computer skills, including at least moderate Excel proficiency. What You Will Learn Create a worksheet that can display the current balance for any given period in time Recreate a star schema from in a data warehouse in Tableau Combine level of detail calculations with table calculations, sets, and parameters Create custom polygons to build filled maps for area codes in the USA Visualize data using a set of analytical and advanced charting techniques Know when to use Tableau instead of PowerPoint Build a dashboard and export it to PowerPoint In Detail Tableau has emerged as one of the most popular Business Intelligence solutions in recent times, thanks to its powerful and interactive data visualization capabilities. This book will empower you to become a master in Tableau by exploiting the many new features introduced in Tableau 10.0. You will embark on this exciting journey by getting to know the valuable methods of utilizing advanced calculations to solve complex problems. These techniques include creative use of different types of calculations such as row-level, aggregate-level, and more. You will discover how almost any data visualization challenge can be met in Tableau by getting a proper understanding of the tool’s inner workings and creatively exploring possibilities. You’ll be armed with an arsenal of advanced chart types and techniques to enable you to efficiently and engagingly present information to a variety of audiences through the use of clear, efficient, and engaging dashboards. Explanations and examples of efficient and inefficient visualization techniques, well-designed and poorly designed dashboards, and compromise options when Tableau consumers will not embrace data visualization will build on your understanding of Tableau and how to use it efficiently. By the end of the book, you will be equipped with all the information you need to create effective dashboards and data visualization solutions using Tableau. Style and approach This book takes a direct approach, to systematically evolve to more involved functionalities such as advanced calculation, parameters & sets, data blending and R integration. This book will help you gain skill in building visualizations previously beyond your capacity.

Learn to get the most out of your business data to optimize your business About This Book This book will enable and empower you to break free of the shackles of spreadsheets Learn to make informed decisions using the data at hand with this highly practical, comprehensive guide This book includes real-world use cases that teach you how analytics can be put to work to optimize your business Using a fictional transactional dataset in raw form, you’ll work your way up to ultimately creating a fully-functional warehouse and a fleshed-out BI platform Who This Book Is For This book is for anyone who has wrangled with data to try to perform automated data analysis through visualizations for themselves or their customers. This highly-customized guide is for developers who know a bit about analytics but don't know how to make use of it in the field of business intelligence. What You Will Learn Create a BI environment that enables self-service reporting Understand SQL and the aggregation of data Develop a data model suitable for analytical reporting Connect a data warehouse to the analytic reporting tools Understand the specific benefits behind visualizations with D3.js, R, Tableau, QlikView, and Python Get to know the best practices to develop various reports and applications when using BI tools Explore the field of data analysis with all the data we will use for reporting In Detail Business Intelligence (BI) is at the crux of revolutionizing enterprise. Everyone wants to minimize losses and maximize profits. Thanks to Big Data and improved methodologies to analyze data, Data Analysts and Data Scientists are increasingly using data to make informed decisions. Just knowing how to analyze data is not enough, you need to start thinking how to use data as a business asset and then perform the right analysis to build an insightful BI solution. Efficient BI strives to achieve the automation of data for ease of reporting and analysis. Through this book, you will develop the ability to think along the right lines and use more than one tool to perform analysis depending on the needs of your business. We start off by preparing you for data analytics. We then move on to teach you a range of techniques to fetch important information from various databases, which can be used to optimize your business. The book aims to provide a full end-to-end solution for an environment setup that can help you make informed business decisions and deliver efficient and automated BI solutions to any company. It is a complete guide for implementing Business intelligence with the help of the most powerful tools like D3.js, R, Tableau, Qlikview and Python that are available on the market. Style and approach Packed with real-world examples, this pragmatic guide helps you polish your data and make informed decisions for your business. We cover both business and data analysis perspectives, blending theory and practical hands-on work so that you perceive data as a business asset.

Quick fixes to your common C# programming problems, with a focus on C# 6.0 About This Book Unique recipes for C#, that places it in its real-world context. You will be able to get yourself out of any coding-corner youve backed yourself into. All code samples available through GitHub to bring C#. In line with modern development workflows, written to the latest specification of C# 6.0. Who This Book Is For The book is aimed at developers who have basic familiarity with C# programming and will know the VS 2015 environment. What You Will Learn Write better and less code to achieve the same result as in previous versions of C#. Generate tests from the Code Contracts for mission critical methods. Integrate code in Visual Studio with GitHub. Create a web application in Azure. Design and build a microservice architecture Demystify the Rx library using Reactive extensions Write high performing codes in C# and understanding multi-threading. Security and Debugging. Implement Code Contracts on code in Visual Studio. In Detail During your application development workflow, there is always a moment when you need to get out of a tight spot. Through a recipe-based approach, this book will help you overcome common programming problems and get your applications ready to face the modern world. We start with C# 6, giving you hands-on experience with the new language features. Next, we work through the tasks that you perform on a daily basis such as working with strings, generics, and lots more. Gradually, we move on to more advanced topics such as the concept of object-oriented programming, asynchronous programming, reactive extensions, and code contracts. You will learn responsive high performance programming in C# and how to create applications with Azure. Next, we will review the choices available when choosing a source control solution. At the end of the book, we will show you how to create secure and robust code, and will help you ramp up your skills when using the new version of C# 6 and Visual Studio Style and Approach Unique recipe-based guide that will help you gain a solid understanding of the new concepts in C# 6 and Visual Studio Enterprise 2015 in a concise and technically correct manner.

Learn how to create more powerful data mining applications with this comprehensive Python guide to advance data analytics techniques About This Book Dive deeper into data mining with Python – don’t be complacent, sharpen your skills! From the most common elements of data mining to cutting-edge techniques, we’ve got you covered for any data-related challenge Become a more fluent and confident Python data-analyst, in full control of its extensive range of libraries Who This Book Is For This book is for data scientists who are already familiar with some basic data mining techniques such as SQL and machine learning, and who are comfortable with Python. If you are ready to learn some more advanced techniques in data mining in order to become a data mining expert, this is the book for you! What You Will Learn Explore techniques for finding frequent itemsets and association rules in large data sets Learn identification methods for entity matches across many different types of data Identify the basics of network mining and how to apply it to real-world data sets Discover methods for detecting the sentiment of text and for locating named entities in text Observe multiple techniques for automatically extracting summaries and generating topic models for text See how to use data mining to fix data anomalies and how to use machine learning to identify outliers in a data set In Detail Data mining is an integral part of the data science pipeline. It is the foundation of any successful data-driven strategy – without it, you'll never be able to uncover truly transformative insights. Since data is vital to just about every modern organization, it is worth taking the next step to unlock even greater value and more meaningful understanding. If you already know the fundamentals of data mining with Python, you are now ready to experiment with more interesting, advanced data analytics techniques using Python's easy-to-use interface and extensive range of libraries. In this book, you'll go deeper into many often overlooked areas of data mining, including association rule mining, entity matching, network mining, sentiment analysis, named entity recognition, text summarization, topic modeling, and anomaly detection. For each data mining technique, we'll review the state-of-the-art and current best practices before comparing a wide variety of strategies for solving each problem. We will then implement example solutions using real-world data from the domain of software engineering, and we will spend time learning how to understand and interpret the results we get. By the end of this book, you will have solid experience implementing some of the most interesting and relevant data mining techniques available today, and you will have achieved a greater fluency in the important field of Python data analytics. Style and approach This book will teach you the intricacies in applying data mining using real-world scenarios and will act as a very practical solution to your data mining needs.

Over 90 practical, actionable recipes to automate, test, and manage your infrastructure quickly and effectively About This Book Bring down your delivery timeline from days to hours by treating your server configurations and VMs as code, just like you would with software code. Take your existing knowledge and skill set with your existing tools (Puppet, Chef, or Docker) to the next level and solve IT infrastructure challenges. Use practical recipes to use code to provision and deploy servers and applications and have greater control of your infrastructure. Who This Book Is For This book is for DevOps engineers and developers working in cross-functional teams or operations and would now switch to IAC to manage complex infrastructures. What You Will Learn Provision local and remote development environments with Vagrant Automate production infrastructures with Terraform, Ansible and Cloud-init on AWS, OpenStack, Google Cloud, Digital Ocean, and more Manage and test automated systems using Chef and Puppet Build, ship, and debug optimized Docker containers Explore the best practices to automate and test everything from cloud infrastructures to operating system configuration In Detail Infrastructure as Code (IAC) is a key aspect of the DevOps movement, and this book will show you how to transform the way you work with your infrastructure—by treating it as software. This book is dedicated to helping you discover the essentials of infrastructure automation and its related practices; the over 90 organized practical solutions will demonstrate how to work with some of the very best tools and cloud solutions. You will learn how to deploy repeatable infrastructures and services on AWS, OpenStack, Google Cloud, and Digital Ocean. You will see both Ansible and Terraform in action, manipulate the best bits from cloud-init to easily bootstrap instances, and simulate consistent environments locally or remotely using Vagrant. You will discover how to automate and test a range of system tasks using Chef or Puppet. You will also build, test, and debug various Docker containers having developers’ interests in mind. This book will help you to use the right tools, techniques, and approaches to deliver working solutions for today’s modern infrastructure challenges. Style and approach This is a recipe-based book that allows you to venture into some of the most cutting-edge practices and techniques about IAC and solve immediate problems when trying to implement them.